Mitchell students awarded clerkships, gain hands-on experience

Mitchell students frequently secure judicial clerkships with the college’s help, part of Mitchell’s tradition of giving its students excellent opportunities to succeed. In 2013, several current or former students are, or will be, clerking, with two of them landing coveted federal clerkships.

Brittany Lawonn and Jeff Holth will be working for Judge Myron Bright on the U. S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit in Fargo, N.D. Bright is the longest sitting circuit court judge in the country, having been appointed by President Lyndon Johnson in 1968.

Regardless of the setting, judicial clerkships provide students the opportunity to work closely with judges to develop writing skills and learn first-hand how the judicial system works. In fact, more active Minnesota judges graduated from Mitchell than from any other law school—many of them having gotten their start as clerks.

Among the Mitchell graduates who have served as clerks and gone on to serve in the judiciary are former Chief Justice of the Minnesota Supreme Court Eric Magnuson ’76, who clerked for another former chief justice, the late Douglas Amdahl ’51.

“Clerking for a judge is probably the single best job to get out of law school,” says Professor Ted Sampsell-Jones. “Clerkships provide an excellent transition from law school to practice, and they provide a great foundation for many different legal jobs. The hiring market for clerkships is extraordinarily competitive, and we are fortunate that so many of our students were offered them this year.”